House of Digital Transformation in Hesse

The association was registered in Darmstadt in May 2011 as the House of IT. Its own account (in German) says that the new name widened the view from the IT industry to the digital transformation as a whole. Its fields are artificial intelligence, cybersecurity, quantum computing and advanced digital tools. The board (in German) has two deputy chairs, from TU Darmstadt and the Fraunhofer Institute for Computer Graphics Research, and a treasurer from the management of Accenture Germany.

The statutory seat is still Mornewegstraße 30 in Darmstadt until the move is entered in the register; the office and postal address are at Am Steinernen Stock 1 in Frankfurt.

Under the HoDT roof are working groups, workshops and joint projects on knowledge and technology transfer. The membership page (in German) names the formats: the Goethe MBA with the Goethe Business School in Digital Transformation, Data Science and Sustainability, the #Digiforum for specialists and managers, an annual fireside evening with the minister, the HoDT Insights member meetings and a virtual meeting of the Hessian IT networks.

The members (in German) include Accenture, the internet exchange DE-CIX, Fraunhofer SIT, Goethe University Frankfurt, TU Darmstadt, Hochschule Darmstadt, Bitkom, Hessenmetall and TechQuartier, the Frankfurt fintech hub.

Q and AI (in German) is the application center for AI and quantum computing at the Bertramshof. The HoDT leads the project, and the Hessian Ministry for Digitalization and Innovation funds it. Q and AI has a showroom, an event space and test environments where companies try AI and quantum technology, and its site shows plans for a 6G test field. Its AI Decision Lab is an interactive simulation of how AI supports complex decisions while a person keeps the final responsibility.

At the KI-Festival in Heilbronn the Q and AI stand showed two Hessian startups: LINK2AI, which demonstrated (in German) how companies use large language models in a secure and compliant way, and knw. Technologies with customer journey analytics from anonymized movement data. With isento and pib, Q and AI runs READY.SET.ROBOT!, a hackathon for humanoid robots.

Futury, the Startup Factory of the Frankfurt School and three Rhine-Main universities, has its Startup Space at the same address. Futury and Q and AI run the event space and the AI showroom at the Bertramshof together. The two opened at the same summer party on the Bertramshof campus of the Frankfurt School: Futury its Startup Space, the HoDT its application center. The Frankfurt School report (in German) quotes the Hessian digital minister on the division of work: startups find workspace, networks and help with funding at Futury, and companies develop solutions and test prototypes with the AI project of the HoDT.

The HoDT coordinates EDITH, the European Digital Innovation Hub for Hesse, with Fraunhofer SIT, hessian.AI, the PTW institute of TU Darmstadt, TechQuartier, the GSI Helmholtzzentrum für Schwerionenforschung and SKAD AG. Its KDLR (in German), a competence center for digitalization in rural areas, helps small and medium-sized companies at three locations: in Eschwege with WFG Werra-Meißner, in Gießen with TransMIT and in the Odenwaldkreis with LeFoO and OREG. With the House of Energy, another of the Hessian "Houses of", the HoDT held an evening at the Bertramshof on AI, quantum computing and the power supply.

The Hessian digital ministry ran a stakeholder dialogue on quantum computing with workshops for finance, mobility and logistics, chemicals and pharma, and data centers. Its impulse paper, presented at Q and AI (in German), sees uses in the finance sector that can be taken up in the short term; for chemicals and pharma, mobility and logistics it sees the potential in the medium and long term. The first step is a central contact point for quantum computing at Q and AI, planned with a help desk, a matchmaking platform and networking formats.

For banks and asset managers in Frankfurt the subject has two sides: portfolio optimization on quantum computers, and the threat to today's encryption. Quantum computing in Frankfurt finance and post-quantum cryptography in finance cover both, and the Frankfurt Quantum Finance Forum is the conference on the subject at Frankfurt School.

Yes. The association was founded as the House of IT and renamed House of Digital Transformation when it widened its work from the IT industry to the digital transformation of the whole economy.

Q and AI is the application center for AI and quantum computing at the Bertramshof in Frankfurt, a project of the House of Digital Transformation funded by the Hessian digital ministry. Companies come there to see the two technologies at work and to test them.

Companies of any size, research institutes, universities and public bodies can apply for membership, and the association lives on their fees. Some of its events are open to the public, on site or online.